Kalvin M. Madsen
Oct 13, 2025
When generating new ideas, Tivadar instantly knows if a concept will become a short story or a poem, stating she doesn't "think about it too much." Her prose is typically inspired by dreams, daydreamed scenes, or media she has recently consumed.
Writer and comic creator A. R. Tivadar is defying the sleek, commercial internet aesthetic, choosing instead to build her artistic home—a "raw" and evolving digital self-portrait—on the retro platform Neocities. Tivadar, whose published work includes poetry and prose, emphasizes that her commitment to the handmade, personal process—even in a digital age—is key to her art.
Tivadar explained that her creative process relies heavily on the physical. She doesn't use digital art programs or tools, preferring to draw her graphics by hand, take photos of them, and then convert them for her site.
"It feels more real, if that makes sense, to have a physical drawing I can pull out and see whenever I want," Tivadar said. She noted that being able to hold and look at what she has made and know, “I made this all by myself!” is a big part of the creative process. Making her own graphics also prevents her from having to "scour the internet for something that looks right".
When generating new ideas, Tivadar instantly knows if a concept will become a short story or a poem, stating she doesn't "think about it too much". Her prose is typically inspired by dreams, daydreamed scenes, or various media she has recently consumed. She frames her prose as creation for her own enjoyment, making what she goes "oh, that’s cool! I want more of that!”. Her poems, which she writes less frequently, are usually "more personal," focusing on her family or painting a scene with words in an "elevated" style. Her comics are exclusively for her original characters and are used as opportunities to improve her drawing skills.
Tivadar selected Neocities as her creative hub precisely because it allows for complete customization, and, once basic HTML is learned, is "fairly easy to do". She highlighted the platform’s community, describing it as "super supportive," with members cheering each other on when new elements are added. She also mentioned that the site serves as a great resource hub for many different domains.
While her artistic approach is unique, Tivadar's inspiration is deeply rooted in her home country. She acknowledged a sense of disconnection from Western media growing up, finding she could never truly relate to the characters in American sitcoms because the things they "did or had were available in [her] own country".
By contrast, reading media from other Eastern European countries, like a Russian novel about fallen gentry or a comedic Bulgarian chapbook, made her "feel right at home".
A core theme in her writing is "family and community in an impoverished world," reflecting what she has seen growing up in Romania, having been born less than ten years after the fall of communism. Tivadar also consciously tries to use Romanian names for characters and settings to ensure representation.
On her primary writing language, Tivadar noted that while English is "universal" and easy to use, Romanian is "without contest the more beautiful language of the two". She stated that English "severely lacks poetic words" to describe nature, emotions, and religion. The differences in phonetics, with English having a "harsh and 'pointy' sound" due to Germanic influence, make Romanian feel "softer and more rounded, more archaic-sounding"
As Tivadar continues to refine her practice, her creative journey appears set to follow a path of intentional, personalized production. Her ongoing updates to the Neocities site, which she describes as an "evolving digital self-portrait", suggest a continuous commitment to archiving and presenting her evolving identity. Given her focus on using comics to practice and "flex [her] skills" and her inspiration from Japanese artists like Junji Ito and Yoshifumi Tozuka, readers can likely anticipate more original characters and narratives blending visual and written work. Furthermore, her deep thematic interest in community, family, and the post-Communist landscape suggests her next published works will continue to offer an authentic, grounded, and often poetic perspective of life in Romania, written first and foremost for herself.